Date of Award

4-2024

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts in Studio Art

Department

Art

First Advisor

Peter Cotroneo

Second Advisor

Lacey Minor

Third Advisor

Joseph Weber

Abstract

Inside the private lives of middle-aged women, significant suffering unfolds in silence. The universal “change” is shrouded in shame. The obstacles particular to women during midlife include physical, emotional, financial, professional, familial, and societal. Many suffer through the indignities of menopause while adjusting to an “empty-nest” (Gullette, 2002, p.554). Droves of middle-aged women are also part of the so-called “Sandwich Generation” (Hong, 2002, p. 358). They are sandwiched between the responsibilities of their children and their elders, all while tenuously balancing careers and menopause. As described in Umma’s Table, “The sandwichgeneration [is] impossibly caught between multigenerational responsibilities, navigating labyrinthine sociomedical systems, and enduring the torment of never being able to do enough” (Hong, 2002, p. 358). Countless mid-life women, whether “sandwiched” or not, are facing parental aging, mortality, and loss. In “Valuing ‘Post-maternity’ as a Revolutionary Feminist Concept,” Margaret Morganroth Gullette offers an alternative and empowering narrative for aging and “Post- Maternity” (Gullette, 2002, pp. 553-572). To fulfill the thesis requirements for a Master’s of Studio Art from Lindenwood University, I am creating a body of work to be presented as an online art portfolio. My works address the aforementioned issues and will reflect the theme of survival and metamorphosis of mid-life women. I hope to illuminate, alleviate, and repudiate the stigma, denial, and denigration faced by “Post-Maternity” women.

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